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Clogged Ditch Keeps Area Saturated

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 19, 2008

Updated: 07/19/2008 12:14 am

PORT RICHEY - The rain started falling heavily a week ago tonight, and by morning the water had surrounded Deborah Parker's doublewide on Afton Lane.

By Thursday, the water was getting dangerously close to flooding her home.

A few streets over, at Suncoast Gateway Mobile Home Village, residents have watched water levels rise in the past week.

The cause of the flooding, according to residents, business owners and Pasco County officials, is a combination of pumping from a nearby golf course and a clogged stormwater ditch on property owned by Harlan and Virginia Farmer along U.S. 19 and Springer Drive.

When rain saturated Magnolia Valley Golf Course, course operators switched on a pair of water pumps. The water flowed through a maze of stormwater drains and culverts to the Farmers' property.

That's where the flow ended, county officials say, backing up into the neighborhood.

So far, the Farmers have refused access to their property to unclog the 20-foot-wide ditch, which is supposed to drain under U.S. 19 into the Gulf of Mexico.
County officials sought an emergency injunction but it was not granted because the Farmers' attorney was not present.

That leaves county officials few options.

Christian M. Wade

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